View full sizeDoug Beghtel/The OregonianJuan McGruder, chairman of the board that runs REAL Prep Charter Academy, says that although the school building and grounds were swarming with construction vehicles, equipment and workers Thursday, the hip-hop-themed public school will open as planned Monday.

REAL Prep Charter Academy, more than three years in the making, is scheduled to open Monday in Portland's Pearl District to serve students in grades nine through 12. The school's designers have spent $500,000 in federal grants to get the school and its curriculum up and running.

But as of Thursday, the renovated industrial building that is to house the school was still undergoing heavy construction work, and only 48 students were formally enrolled -- too few to make the school financially viable.

If the school is unfit to open Monday or soon thereafter, the school district will send all the students to other schools for this school year, said Sue Ann Higgens, the district's executive director of education options. All other Portland high schools began classes this week, she noted.

"It's a complex situation. ... Obviously something as dire as a delayed opening of school is really concerning," Higgens said. "Our first interest is that the students have access to their education."

The school is the brainchild of Erica Jayasuriya, mother of a multiracial son who wanted to attend a compelling, culturally relevant high school. She is backed by a board of directors chaired by Juan McGruder, a photographer and musician.

The plan, approved by the Portland School Board, was to create a school where students could find their voices and culture honored; learn skills from and get credit for hands-on work with artists and recording industry professionals; and where core academic lessons would be laced with hip-hop themes.

Organizers projected they would sign up 160 students the first year. But so far, they have only 41 Portland students and seven from nearby districts on the rolls. An additional 15 have completed paperwork and are waiting for their previous schools to release them, said Lakeitha Elliot, who was contracted to help with enrollment in July and August.

But Elliot said the school seems so unready for students -- without desks, recording equipment or a solid administrative team -- that she grew hesitant to talk up the school to families.

At an open house at the still-under-renovation building Aug. 28, school officials presented the unpainted walls, furniture-free classrooms and lack of plans as a plus for students, who would get to help shape the program and decorate and furnish their new school.

But Elliot said she had another take on what students would think on the first day of school. "I was like, 'Wow, these kids are going to be disappointed.'"

With Jayasuriya at the helm, the group spent most of two federal grants totaling $450,000 to pay a small group to design curriculum, get relevant training, sign on industry and artistic partners to help out, and reach out to students and families to get them to enroll. The state awarded and monitored the spending of that grant.

From March 2010 to this July, for instance, Jayasuriya got $68,000 for her work trying to get the school off the ground. And Troy McNair, the Florida-based brand manager for the Grammy-winning hip-hop trio De La Soul, was paid $79,000 to design curriculum units to help students create a record label and to sign on artists including De La Soul's Maseo to endorse and advise the school.

That left school organizers without money to buy desks, textbooks, computers or more than a smattering of recording equipment. They were hoping a hip-hop label or philanthropist would make a hefty donation, school leaders say, but none came through. They hoped to get donations of used desks or chairs but didn't.

Leadership has also been unsteady.

Until the beginning of August, Jayasuriya was a hands-on leader who planned to be involved in day-to-day operations as a teacher and creative director. Tom Klein, a former administrator of another charter school and a Head Start center who was involved in the planning for REAL Prep for years, was to be the school's administrative director, with primary responsibility for finances.

In July, education consultant and curriculum and equity specialist Keisha Edwards was brought on board as the director of teaching and learning.

She specified that Klein and Edwards should jointly lead the school, and they become co-executive directors, with Edwards taking the lead on the instructional side. But as Edwards learned more about the school's finances and lack of preparation, she became concerned, she said Thursday.

Then last week, during a meeting with district officials to convince them the school was ready to open, Klein grew angry and resigned. That left Edwards, with help from an experienced charter-starter named Jill Corley, who had just stepped in, to run the school.

Four days later, on Labor Day, McGruder, the board chairman, fired Edwards and Corley without explanation, Edwards said. Klein has been reinstated as administrator.

Higgens, who oversees charter schools for the district, acknowledged that it was disconcerting to have one of the school's co-directors resign in front of her in the midst of a meeting just 11 days before the school was to open. Learning that Edwards was no longer co-director was also an attention-getter. "That's a red flag, absolutely."

Neither Klein nor McGruder returned email messages Thursday, and the school district did not have telephone numbers to reach them. McGruder told a photographer for The Oregonian who ran across him at the school's building Thursday that the school is certain to open Monday.

But Higgins said it's not financially viable for any school to pay enough teachers to teach four grade levels plus pay rent on its building with just 48 students. Charter schools in Portland are funded at about $5,800 per student.

"We are reviewing closely with them the financial viability of their current enrollment," she said. "Their original budget had 160 students as a worst-case scenario. But in spite of two years of recruitment opportunities, we find them to have fewer than 50 students the week before school starts."

She said district officials aren't yet certain, and may not decide for certain today, what will happen.

"We are studying what options there are," she said. "To be doing anything other than a grand opening is just heartbreaking."